Darned hurricanes...

[N8YX]

Well, we got winded on Sunday evening in NE Ohio...hundreds of trees down and thousands without power, all due to Ike's remnants.

I lost two antennas - a 102' G5RV (running E-W) - and a brand-new Diamond 3200 tri-band vertical. The latter was installed just hours prior to the peak wind event and was torn down by a tree falling on its support mast. That event also took down the G5RV.

The antenna was originally hung between a locust tree on the east end of my lot and a birch on the western edge. Given the fact that I'm probably going to have to cut the locust tree down, I may end up losing the easternmost "high point".

Which begs the next question: What kind of grief am I setting myself up for if I configure the G5RV as a sloper? Good 20M coverage toward the east is desirable, with a secondary emphasis on 75/80. Should the 'RV come down and a loaded dual-band (20/80M) dipole go up in its place, albeit in a sloping configuration?

One wishes for enough linear space to hang a Windom but that's pushing things a bit.

The new antenna needs to be wire and it cannot be longer than 110'. I -may- be able to get a support line high into an oak tree that's a little closer to the eastern edge of my lot, but then again I may have to settle for a height of no greater than, say 10'.

Discuss.

Options and ideas, please...

[KC8TCQ]

Well.... I have my longwire as a sloper, actually a folded sloper, and have worked several EU stations on 20m, as well as several east coast stations w.o any problems whatsoever. The wire goes out the second floor window, down to a support that is 6 ft tall, and back up to the roof of the first floor terminated with a rope tie off at the cast iron vent pipe.

I'm not sure how well that will translate into your G5RV.

[n2ize]

Well, we got winded on Sunday evening in NE Ohio...hundreds of trees down and thousands without power, all due to Ike's remnants.

I lost two antennas - a 102' G5RV (running E-W) - and a brand-new Diamond 3200 tri-band vertical. The latter was installed just hours prior to the peak wind event and was torn down by a tree falling on its support mast. That event also took down the G5RV.

The antenna was originally hung between a locust tree on the east end of my lot and a birch on the western edge. Given the fact that I'm probably going to have to cut the locust tree down, I may end up losing the easternmost "high point".

Which begs the next question: What kind of grief am I setting myself up for if I configure the G5RV as a sloper? Good 20M coverage toward the east is desirable, with a secondary emphasis on 75/80. Should the 'RV come down and a loaded dual-band (20/80M) dipole go up in its place, albeit in a sloping configuration?

One wishes for enough linear space to hang a Windom but that's pushing things a bit.

The new antenna needs to be wire and it cannot be longer than 110'. I -may- be able to get a support line high into an oak tree that's a little closer to the eastern edge of my lot, but then again I may have to settle for a height of no greater than, say 10'.

Discuss.

Options and ideas, please...

For HF I've always had my best luck with a flat top dipole (or inverted vee) fed with balanced (open wire) feedline. At the transmitter end I use a Johnson Matchbox (homebrew link couplers work well too). Just cut the antenna for the lowest frequency you're going to be using. Mine is cut for 80 meters and it loads fine on 80 thru 10. very respectable signal too. It's put me out round the globe quite nicely.

Oh, one last thing. String it up as high as you can manage.

[N9FE]

Yes here too. Link coupled tuner. 130ft Slight invert. 600ohm right to the tuner. I cannot have a beam, so one antenna, and a scatter stick for 17-12-10. Landlady approved, And no neighbors on my back.. Frickin hurricanes !!!

[N8YX]

After an entire weekend spend on and off the house roofs, I now have a few more antenni in place.

First one to go back up was the C3200, then the G5RV. I may switch it to all ladder-line feed, but then again I may replace it with a Windom or a 75/20M 'loaded' dipole. Right now it's in a sloped configuration, running E-W...4NEC shows a high lobe immediately to the west and a pair of low lobes to the NE and SE. This may work out well for continental U.S. contacts as well as Europe and Africa DX. I'm going to slingshot another support line back into one of the tall trees at the east side of my lot and play around with 'high vs. low' a bit.

I had an old Hustler 5BTV and assorted pieces of another laying around so I decided to see what I could fashion out of it. The new antenna covers 12, 15 and 17M...the 10M FM repeater/simplex area...and CB channels 1-40 with under 2:1 VSWR. The antenna it replaced was a CB-only vertical, so I gained a few bands. :mrgreen:

The Hustler is mounted on a 20ft piece of boom tubing, which itself is clamped to an existing vertical TV antenna support (minus TV antenna, of course). I put a pulley and rope immediately below the base of the Hustler and rigged an Alpha Delta DX-SWL sloper to it; the A-D slopes away towards the west. If the contraption works as good for SWL reception as is advertised I'm going to install another one come next spring; it will be oriented to favor Africa. The sloper was a $20 hamfest purchase and the insulators used on the thing are worth more than that.

(I still enjoy SWLing and Ute monitoring as much as I do yakking on the ham bands..)

Final antenna project for this year will be to convert a tree-mounted "random wire Tee" into a loaded inverted vee for 75 and 40M.

Next year comes the tower - and with it, a good directional array for the upper HF spectrum...as well as some much-needed mounting options for my wire antennas.

[W5GA]

After an entire weekend spend on and off the house roofs, I now have a few more antenni in place.

First one to go back up was the C3200, then the G5RV. I may switch it to all ladder-line feed, but then again I may replace it with a Windom or a 75/20M 'loaded' dipole. Right now it's in a sloped configuration, running E-W...4NEC shows a high lobe immediately to the west and a pair of low lobes to the NE and SE. This may work out well for continental U.S. contacts as well as Europe and Africa DX. I'm going to slingshot another support line back into one of the tall trees at the east side of my lot and play around with 'high vs. low' a bit.

I had an old Hustler 5BTV and assorted pieces of another laying around so I decided to see what I could fashion out of it. The new antenna covers 12, 15 and 17M...the 10M FM repeater/simplex area...and CB channels 1-40 with under 2:1 VSWR. The antenna it replaced was a CB-only vertical, so I gained a few bands. :mrgreen:

The Hustler is mounted on a 20ft piece of boom tubing, which itself is clamped to an existing vertical TV antenna support (minus TV antenna, of course). I put a pulley and rope immediately below the base of the Hustler and rigged an Alpha Delta DX-SWL sloper to it; the A-D slopes away towards the west. If the contraption works as good for SWL reception as is advertised I'm going to install another one come next spring; it will be oriented to favor Africa. The sloper was a $20 hamfest purchase and the insulators used on the thing are worth more than that.

(I still enjoy SWLing and Ute monitoring as much as I do yakking on the ham bands..)

Final antenna project for this year will be to convert a tree-mounted "random wire Tee" into a loaded inverted vee for 75 and 40M.

Next year comes the tower - and with it, a good directional array for the upper HF spectrum...as well as some much-needed mounting options for my wire antennas.

The BTV will work leaps and bounds better if you put at least 2 radials per band on it in your configuration.

[N8YX]

The BTV will work leaps and bounds better if you put at least 2 radials per band on it in your configuration.

There are 4 "tuned" radials per band attached to it at the moment.

BTVs and me are no strangers to each other. I've been experimenting with the things for over 20 years.